The talk is titled “Building a New Economy: What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

Wicks, who grew up in Ingomar, will also speak and sign books at the annual Farm to Table Pittsburgh, March 21-22 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

That’s three chances to catch her here — and Pittsburgh is one of only seven cities currently announced on her national book tour.

Wicks is best known as a pioneer in the local-food movement. She founded Philadelphia’s White Dog Café in 1983, and grew it into a nationally known restaurant featuring fresh, local food, and lauded for its community engagement, environmental principles and responsible business practices. White Dog, for instance, claimed to be the first business in Pennsylvania to purchase all-renewable energy. (Wicks sold the restaurant in 2009.)

But Wicks is more than a restaurateur. She’s lived in an Eskimo village, worked with the Zapatista rebels in El Salvador, and later launched the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, which promotes a new economic model based on environmental stewardship and social justice.

On her website, Wicks writes that Good Morning, Beautiful Business “focuses on my love of nature, animals and community and my work in building local living economies. This memoir follows my entrepreneurial and activist adventures from age nine to the present.”

The free talk at Big Idea is at 7 p.m. tonight. Big Idea, itself a cooperative business venture, is located at 4810 Liberty Ave., in Bloomfield.